“Erika de Vasconcelos’s new novel,
Between the Stillness and the Grove, [is] a poignant saga of love and loss…Avoiding romantic flamboyance, de Vasconcelos focuses on the worst pain that comes out of silence…[a] warm-hearted book…highly readable.”
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The Globe and Mail“It is extremely well-researched and thought provoking…It is a passionate and graphic tale of hunger, prostitution and survival…Dzovig and Vecihe have travelled far and carry the reader along with them on a journey, which will be of interest to those familiar with Armenian history and will stimulate others to find out more about this fascinating part of the world.”
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Winnipeg Free Press“
Between the Stillness and the Grove is, like de Vasconcelos’ first novel, wonderfully written…it is… eloquent and sincerely felt…de Vasconcelos…is an exceptionally talented and original writer.”
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London Free Press“Beautiful and cathartic.... It is de Vasconcelos's skill at weaving a deeply personal story into this dense, contested political terrain that makes the book so stirring.”
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Toronto Life “Throughout, the warmth, the generosity and weary wisdom of Vecihe’s first-person confessional narration envelops the reader, the flow of her memories intimate and laden with emotion and sensual detail.”
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The Toronto Star“A delicately written book about a very grave theme.… The narrative is constructed with time shifts, as the characters and the reader learn for themselves what the past has been hiding.… Erika de Vasconcelos has a gift for beautiful language and for describing the significant detail.… Her writing is lyrical and even tender.”
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Uptown Magazine (Winnipeg)
“Her writing on the subject of Vecihe’s past and present life is warm and achingly real.… The brutalities she turns her pen to are convincingly rendered with an understanding of human frailty.”
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Quill & Quire“De Vasconcelos describes war and the crimes of Communism with a stunning combination of ferocity and intimacy.… [An] ardent, idiosyncratic book.”
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Edmonton Journal“Compelling on the first read, enriching on the second, begging a third, a fourth.… Identity, dislocation, death.… The novel seems to spiral ever deeper into itself, bits and pieces of Dzovig’s past, and Tomas’s, and their mothers’, and their grandmothers’ released like trapped pockets of noxious gas.… The characterization is as rich as the writing.”
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The Gazette (Montreal)
